Bass drum Recording and EQ

ManInMotion711

ManInMotion711

New member
ok so ive been at this for a while now and ive gotten the hang of it mostly. still things i havent figured out and i cant seem to wrap my brain around. Whenever i record my drums my kicks always come out really dull and barely noticeable compared to the rest of the track. and it doesnt sound clicky like i want it sounds like a dull thud. I have the Kick mic off center pointed straight at where the beaters are hitting ive tried a bunch of different eq's for it to make it jump out more and be clicky but nothings working. any advice? i could really use it.
 
It sounds like there is a decent amount of click there. It does sound dead though. Maybe your drum is too muffled. You could probably get more click with a plastic beater or a click patch. Tuning and new heads will help a lot too. My drummer has a bass drum that has always sounded kind of dead and crappy, the other day he tuned the batter head a tiny bit higher and all of a sudden it became louder and with more attack. :listeningmusic: fiddle with the tuning!
 
JG96 said:
It sounds like there is a decent amount of click there. It does sound dead though. Maybe your drum is too muffled.
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At the current moment i have a pillow and two small blankets inside the drum, i have the reso head tuned but pretty low and i have the beater head tuned decently high, ill try messing with it like you suggested though :d and i actually took my beater and turned it around so its plastic hitting the drum itself, but i will try taking out some dampening and messing with the tuning
 
hmmm. the way you describe your beater and tuning makes it seem like there should be a good amount of click. How old are your heads? If they are ancient that could explain the dead sound. If not its probably just too much muffling.
 
I have an Aqarian Super kick 2 on my beater head and its no more then 3 or 4 months old. the reso head is maybe 7 or 8 months old. I think its to much muffling. then again its also a 24' kick drum
 
Doesn't seem to have any low end, punch or resonance (shell' tone, low end decay?
But then in the full mix maybe it isn't intended to have room for that sort of thing..? IDK, the bass isn't in there yet, but if the drums were (or gon'a be) that forward, I'd want to hear them thunder a bit.
 
I'm a big fan of Aquarian Superkick heads. I'm not using one now, but I almost always go back to them. When I use one, I put no muffling whatsoever. None. They're muffled enough just the way they come. My kick sounds like an atomic bomb with one of those batter heads on it. I really don't know why I even bother trying different kick heads. The Superkick is pretty much always my favorite. Hell, I'm gonna go buy another today.
 
Glad to hear that, ill give that a shot today and see what happens, ive just always been told to throw a blanket in the bass drum and what not
 
ManInMotion711 said:
Glad to hear that, ill give that a shot today and see what happens, ive just always been told to throw a blanket in the bass drum and what not
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You got told wrong. And not only did you throw a blanket in there, you threw in another and a pillow. Lol. That's way, way too much. I don't care what kind of music you're playing, that's too much. Try this: try the drum with no muffling. Just tune it to sound right and put a mic inside of it up near the beater contact spot. See how it sounds. Try it halfway in. See how it sounds. Try it just inside the reso head. See how it sounds. Try to dial it in like that. If it's still too boomy no matter where you put the mic, put ONE SMALL pillow in there. ONE. SMALL. Pillow. Try the pillow just barely touching one head. Then just barely touching the other. Then try it just barely touching both heads. They key here is JUST BARELY TOUCHING. Don't have the pillow all jammed upside everything. It only takes a tiny touch of pillow to muffle a kick drum. Move the mic around while trying the pillow spots. Take your time to dial it in. You'll eventually find the combo of mic placement and pillow position to get the sound you want. Thank me later.
 
I don't know much about recording, and less about drums. What I can say is that you have a decent song here. Yeah the levels sound a bit off to me. But properly done, you'll have a kick ass song.
 
Besdies all the good advice you've received so far, make sure your bass drum isn't out of phase with your overheads.
 
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